June 29, 2017 at 13:04How to create an alternative to Google Drive and Dropbox in 3700 hours
Over 8 months of development, 3700 working hours, with the help of 15 people, the Artezio team created its own file-sharing platform SendFile. At first we considered it as a training project, but then it outgrew this status. In this article I will tell you how it all began and what we have come to now.
Our company Artezio (LANIT Group) is 16 years old, and we remember the times when customers had to send work on discs with parcels and custom packages. Imagine how hard it was for us and our customers to figure out a lot of digital media! Then came the time of the “slow Internet” and multi-volume archives, which could be sent by e-mail. But it is not suitable if you need to send a large array of data. Even very liberal mail services will not allow this, and changing the corporate mail settings for the sake of this does not make sense.
Source
It remains to use existing sites for file sharing? But remember that five years ago they were file crashes on the Internet. It is dangerous and embarrassing to send a client for files to hellish hell out of ads, scripts. In fairness, it is worth saying that there were decent cloud products. But a few years ago, when we thought about a file-sharing platform, they were still too expensive and unsafe. However, they remain so now. And that's why.
Even if all content will be created directly in the cloud and transmitted through it, a few questions will still remain open. For example, security (sharing access for different users, limiting access by time, logging) or the convenience of an interface for disseminating information.
We conceived our product (it received the obvious name SendFile ) as a corporate application with a high level of security and integration with the company's internal infrastructure. In this regard, public services such as Google Drive, Yandex.disk or Dropmefiles are not of interest. For example, anyone who uses Gmail has Google Drive. This solution is perfectly integrated with it. But this is also a weak point, because it requires a Google account, which in case of commercial use is not always convenient.
In the development process, we were often asked: “Are you not afraid that you are creating a platform for piracy?” This question has become especially common since the time when Russia came to grips with torrents and other sites that distribute illegal content.
A source
To be honest, our file sharing service is suitable for sharing new films and music. In the same way as a kitchen knife can become an instrument of crime. Any tool can be used both for the good and to the detriment. But we have built in some security features, which, among others, may come in handy and, if necessary, help in the fight against illegal copying. For example, the system administrator knows who and when posted the specific file, who received it. You can determine the types of files available for transfer on the system. You need to understand that our development is an enterprise platform for file sharing. It is unlikely that any of the employees of corporations will count on complete anonymity if they begin to distribute films and music over the office network. However, if you made an absolutely safe knife, it means that it does not cut.
The same goes for streaming. File-sharing solutions may seem like the last century. Like, now everything is decided by the technology of streaming data transmission. But streaming involves the receipt of data in the form of a stream in parts. However, as a rule, you do not have a complete set of data at any time. This is really very convenient when watching a video or listening to audio - no need to wait until the entire movie is downloaded. However, there is a lot of information for which integrity is important. That is, before using the information, you must get it in its entirety. Requesting information from an incomplete database will lead to an unpredictable and most likely erroneous result.
Imagine that you stream a text file. What will you see when you get only the first part of this file? You cannot read the text, you cannot edit it until the file transfer is complete. By analogy, “streaming” does not work with other types of files, including archives and data that developers transfer to their customers. To normally exchange data at a distance, you need a file-sharing service.
People do not like to wait, so all successful services will try in various ways to provide the opportunity to work with them as quickly as possible, hide the delay, process it on the server-cloud side, and display the results in parts. But so far this is not always acceptable, and I do not think that the picture will fundamentally change in the next ten years.
From the very beginning, two students worked on the project, who dreamed of getting a job in our company. This is very similar to the story of the emergence of the popular social network, which was born in a student hostel. But with file hosting it turned out easier. Artezio has a Junior Lab training unit, and it allows new recruits to stand out, realize an idea that probably won't go into circulation. No one expected that student crafts would live long and be developed. As a result, a spontaneous idea and grew into a commercial product.
To create a file-sharing project, it took 3700 hours or 8 months of work. (We do not consider initial student development.) Of this time, 64% was spent only on development, 20% on testing, 16% on management and analysis. During this time, 15 people participated in the project.
At different times, the composition of the team changed. As the commercial potential grew, so did the team. Now the project does not need a large number of specialists. We have a finished product with a practical design, great features.
The project was developed in two stages. As I said, in the first - we created a working prototype with the help of interns at Juniors Lab (we still hired them). The second stage was a promising refinement, adaptation for commercial projects.
The first development prototypes were successful, and we began to use the product in our company. Moreover, our colleagues from LANIT also liked the development. Therefore, the file-sharing system was registered in their office as a corporate standard. Considering that LANIT is a group of companies with a team of several thousand people, our system has become an additional bridge between offices, providing file transfer between employees. This is convenient when the business is conducted by different companies that do not have access to a single corporate network. Of course, the system was also actively used to send information to customers.
Then there was commercial integration for a large Russian state-owned company, which demanded the possibility of data encryption. Unfortunately, I cannot disclose all the details of the integration and name the customer. I can only say that we had to make specific changes that strengthened the security of file transfer and user identification. This project was the beginning of a civil service for file hosting. He works on it so far.
We did not abandon the development of the project and developed its updated version. This second phase of development is almost over.
The first version looked like this.
And here is the updated version.
When creating the platform, we did not focus on any breakthrough technologies. Everything is pretty common if you look at the tools separately, and it’s interesting when you look at the result.
We used the open source Spring framework. As an anti-virus solution, the multi-platform Clam AntiVirus package was integrated. The Artezio team has good Java expertise and we tried to use it at all stages of development.
The Artezio Analytical Department constantly conducts market research, tests existing technology and software platforms, and compiles ratings. A couple of months ago, we compared messengers for doing business . The latest study focused on file-sharing systems for the corporate sector.
When we talk about business solutions, we focus on the confidentiality of data storage and transmission, effective anti-virus protection of file-sharing platforms. The cost of their use is placed in a separate category, which is very often a critical factor when choosing (especially since there are free solutions on the market).
We evaluated file-sharing solutions in the following categories: mobile client, Active Directory integration, encryption, antivirus protection, file request function, file usage report, network activity report, large file transfer control, price (the more expensive the solution, the lower rating).
The table below shows the results of our comparison. We are in the TOP 9.
You can read more about the study of file-sharing platforms here .
As I already said, we created a file hosting service for ourselves and successfully use it internally. But the product quickly outgrew that framework. At the end of 2016, our product was included in the Unified Register of Domestic Software.
To get into the registry, it took us more than three months. A lot of time was spent on preparing legal documents to comply with the registration rules.
Source
While undertaking the registration procedure, we relied on the already existing experience of integration in the state company, which was mentioned above. Then we made sure that our development is suitable for large companies that place high demands on the security of data transfer.
We do not plan to make our file hosting public or otherwise deprive it of corporate focus. In this regard, it makes no sense to compete with Google Drive or Yandex drive. SendFile allows you to use both an external cloud and space directly on the server as storage.
For commercial companies, a product may be of interest as a tool that can be finely tuned for you. Of course, it is important for customers to determine for themselves how file-sharing processes will work for them. This approach to development seems right to us. It is also characteristic of Artezio's new projects - from home accounting for mobile devices to an uber application for saving people and animals. But we will talk about this in other articles.
On the 16th anniversary of Artezio
Why did we need it
Our company Artezio (LANIT Group) is 16 years old, and we remember the times when customers had to send work on discs with parcels and custom packages. Imagine how hard it was for us and our customers to figure out a lot of digital media! Then came the time of the “slow Internet” and multi-volume archives, which could be sent by e-mail. But it is not suitable if you need to send a large array of data. Even very liberal mail services will not allow this, and changing the corporate mail settings for the sake of this does not make sense.
It remains to use existing sites for file sharing? But remember that five years ago they were file crashes on the Internet. It is dangerous and embarrassing to send a client for files to hellish hell out of ads, scripts. In fairness, it is worth saying that there were decent cloud products. But a few years ago, when we thought about a file-sharing platform, they were still too expensive and unsafe. However, they remain so now. And that's why.
Even if all content will be created directly in the cloud and transmitted through it, a few questions will still remain open. For example, security (sharing access for different users, limiting access by time, logging) or the convenience of an interface for disseminating information.
We conceived our product (it received the obvious name SendFile ) as a corporate application with a high level of security and integration with the company's internal infrastructure. In this regard, public services such as Google Drive, Yandex.disk or Dropmefiles are not of interest. For example, anyone who uses Gmail has Google Drive. This solution is perfectly integrated with it. But this is also a weak point, because it requires a Google account, which in case of commercial use is not always convenient.
Doubts: streaming and piracy
In the development process, we were often asked: “Are you not afraid that you are creating a platform for piracy?” This question has become especially common since the time when Russia came to grips with torrents and other sites that distribute illegal content.
To be honest, our file sharing service is suitable for sharing new films and music. In the same way as a kitchen knife can become an instrument of crime. Any tool can be used both for the good and to the detriment. But we have built in some security features, which, among others, may come in handy and, if necessary, help in the fight against illegal copying. For example, the system administrator knows who and when posted the specific file, who received it. You can determine the types of files available for transfer on the system. You need to understand that our development is an enterprise platform for file sharing. It is unlikely that any of the employees of corporations will count on complete anonymity if they begin to distribute films and music over the office network. However, if you made an absolutely safe knife, it means that it does not cut.
The same goes for streaming. File-sharing solutions may seem like the last century. Like, now everything is decided by the technology of streaming data transmission. But streaming involves the receipt of data in the form of a stream in parts. However, as a rule, you do not have a complete set of data at any time. This is really very convenient when watching a video or listening to audio - no need to wait until the entire movie is downloaded. However, there is a lot of information for which integrity is important. That is, before using the information, you must get it in its entirety. Requesting information from an incomplete database will lead to an unpredictable and most likely erroneous result.
Imagine that you stream a text file. What will you see when you get only the first part of this file? You cannot read the text, you cannot edit it until the file transfer is complete. By analogy, “streaming” does not work with other types of files, including archives and data that developers transfer to their customers. To normally exchange data at a distance, you need a file-sharing service.
People do not like to wait, so all successful services will try in various ways to provide the opportunity to work with them as quickly as possible, hide the delay, process it on the server-cloud side, and display the results in parts. But so far this is not always acceptable, and I do not think that the picture will fundamentally change in the next ten years.
How long have we been creating our file hosting
From the very beginning, two students worked on the project, who dreamed of getting a job in our company. This is very similar to the story of the emergence of the popular social network, which was born in a student hostel. But with file hosting it turned out easier. Artezio has a Junior Lab training unit, and it allows new recruits to stand out, realize an idea that probably won't go into circulation. No one expected that student crafts would live long and be developed. As a result, a spontaneous idea and grew into a commercial product.
To create a file-sharing project, it took 3700 hours or 8 months of work. (We do not consider initial student development.) Of this time, 64% was spent only on development, 20% on testing, 16% on management and analysis. During this time, 15 people participated in the project.
At different times, the composition of the team changed. As the commercial potential grew, so did the team. Now the project does not need a large number of specialists. We have a finished product with a practical design, great features.
The project was developed in two stages. As I said, in the first - we created a working prototype with the help of interns at Juniors Lab (we still hired them). The second stage was a promising refinement, adaptation for commercial projects.
The first development prototypes were successful, and we began to use the product in our company. Moreover, our colleagues from LANIT also liked the development. Therefore, the file-sharing system was registered in their office as a corporate standard. Considering that LANIT is a group of companies with a team of several thousand people, our system has become an additional bridge between offices, providing file transfer between employees. This is convenient when the business is conducted by different companies that do not have access to a single corporate network. Of course, the system was also actively used to send information to customers.
Then there was commercial integration for a large Russian state-owned company, which demanded the possibility of data encryption. Unfortunately, I cannot disclose all the details of the integration and name the customer. I can only say that we had to make specific changes that strengthened the security of file transfer and user identification. This project was the beginning of a civil service for file hosting. He works on it so far.
We did not abandon the development of the project and developed its updated version. This second phase of development is almost over.
The first version looked like this.
And here is the updated version.
What we made file hosting from (we explain in the diagrams)
When creating the platform, we did not focus on any breakthrough technologies. Everything is pretty common if you look at the tools separately, and it’s interesting when you look at the result.
We used the open source Spring framework. As an anti-virus solution, the multi-platform Clam AntiVirus package was integrated. The Artezio team has good Java expertise and we tried to use it at all stages of development.
Strengths
The Artezio Analytical Department constantly conducts market research, tests existing technology and software platforms, and compiles ratings. A couple of months ago, we compared messengers for doing business . The latest study focused on file-sharing systems for the corporate sector.
When we talk about business solutions, we focus on the confidentiality of data storage and transmission, effective anti-virus protection of file-sharing platforms. The cost of their use is placed in a separate category, which is very often a critical factor when choosing (especially since there are free solutions on the market).
We evaluated file-sharing solutions in the following categories: mobile client, Active Directory integration, encryption, antivirus protection, file request function, file usage report, network activity report, large file transfer control, price (the more expensive the solution, the lower rating).
The table below shows the results of our comparison. We are in the TOP 9.
In the state registry
As I already said, we created a file hosting service for ourselves and successfully use it internally. But the product quickly outgrew that framework. At the end of 2016, our product was included in the Unified Register of Domestic Software.
To get into the registry, it took us more than three months. A lot of time was spent on preparing legal documents to comply with the registration rules.
While undertaking the registration procedure, we relied on the already existing experience of integration in the state company, which was mentioned above. Then we made sure that our development is suitable for large companies that place high demands on the security of data transfer.
A future, but not for everyone ...
We do not plan to make our file hosting public or otherwise deprive it of corporate focus. In this regard, it makes no sense to compete with Google Drive or Yandex drive. SendFile allows you to use both an external cloud and space directly on the server as storage.
For commercial companies, a product may be of interest as a tool that can be finely tuned for you. Of course, it is important for customers to determine for themselves how file-sharing processes will work for them. This approach to development seems right to us. It is also characteristic of Artezio's new projects - from home accounting for mobile devices to an uber application for saving people and animals. But we will talk about this in other articles.